What the flip?

Good question. What are we doing? Why are we spending so much money on this? What's the point? These are all questions we are still asking ourselves. It's one of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time". Is it? You better believe it baby. The reason behind all this is Banter. It is often difficult to think up things to do on those days that we have free. As we are only ever united a couple of times a year, we need to make those times good. Real good. But usually our minds go blank Occassionaly things present themselves for us to do (such as finding a go-kart in a skip). but a lot of the time we just sit around bored. Hence the Banter 500 kicks in. Think of a it as a "100 things you must do before you die" list. Plenty of things for us to do. With a catch. There is a time limit. And not before we die either. Points will be awarded according to each challenge completed, defined by it's category. At the deadline, (that is, New Year's Eve 2007), the scores will be tallied, a presentation service will take place, the winner will walk away with a ridiculous trophy, and a big grin on his face.

The Presentation

This is a presentation that was created as an informative tool to describe to people exactly what the Banter 500 is all about. It includes the Mission Statement, the company history, a list of rules, as well as giving some examples of various challenges that need to be completed, and some evidence of completed challenges. This edition of the presentation also includes the “Lee Last Appeal”, where we held an evening of challenges in order to make Lee come last. A thank you goes out to the members of Senior Camp that year for helping it all to happen. The presentation can be downloaded below, but it is a huge 18 meg file. If you want the sound to work (also known as the Banter 500 theme tune), then download it as well, and keep it in the same directory as the presentation in order to let it work.

The Banter 500 Presentation (18 MB)
The Banter 500 Theme Tune (3 MB)

Mission Statement

"The aim of the Banter 500 is to utilise the strengths of the founding members,
to produce many moments of merriment,whilst maintaining a sense of competition;
the winner receiving by presentation, a prize for his efforts."

History

• Formed in April 2005 by the executive committee
• Design analysis commenced for 2 months
• Production completed in June 2005
• Implementation ongoing throughout committees' lives

Rules

• Approximately 500 tasks to be completed
• Task list is updated periodically
• Tasks divided into different categories
• Task must be completed by each individual person
• Teams can have help to complete tasks,
• Teams aren't allowed to have other people do the tasks for them
• Categories have a weighted point system
• Winner is the one with the most points at the end
• Closing date for entries is New Year's Eve 2007
• A maximum of 20 vague challenges can be completed per team
• Proof (ideally via photographoc evidence) required for each task
• If no proof is produced, it will be appealed before a panel of scumbags. 2 out of the 3 scumbags must agree on the proof before it can be officially awarded the points. Failed attempts must be documented.